Another efficient win for Zenit, who now lead the Russian Premier League by nine points. They’re not quite out of sight, but it would take an incredible turnaround for them to not win the championship, even with 15 rounds still to play. Read more »

It’s this year’s must-have for any side looking to finish near the top of the Premier League: a player who prompts the question, ‘What does he do?’ Read more »

You thought football had stopped for a month, didn’t you? Read more »

Sometimes in-depth tactical analysis can overcomplicate the fairly basic job of a manager – to get the best out of his players. Here are the ten managers who did that well at this World Cup. Read more »

This was the tournament in which many of the big names failed to perform, but few of this XI were Read more »

The first sign that Andres Iniesta was the danger man came midway through the second half of normal time, when he found himself through on goal (pink), but took too long to get a shot away. Read more »

As the game wore on, Arjen Robben took up even more advanced and central positions when Holland had the ball. Read more »

As is customary after a Spain or Barcelona success, the performance of Sergio Busquets (two La Ligas, a Champions League and a World Cup after two seasons of professional football) has largely been ignored. Read more »

Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s lack of pace was cited as a potential weakness before every Holland game, and the Dutch captain seemed to acknowledge his weakness in that respect. Therefore, he made sure to stick tight to whichever winger he came up against. Here, Pedro comes very deep to get the ball, and van Bronckhorst tracks him all the way. Read more »

Here is Holland’s basic shape when they have the ball with their goalkeeper, Maarten Stekelenburg. This shows their defence (red), their holding midfielders (yellow), the attacking band of three (green) and the striker (blue). Read more »

Spain are the World Champions. They were the better side and played a more positive, cohesive brand of football throughout. Read more »

So here we are, the biggest game in football. A clash of the two most successful sides in World Cup history to have never won the trophy itself, it is tactically fascinating in a historical sense. Read more »

This is a tremendously intriguing final for a variety of reasons. Read more »

A narrow but deserved victory for Spain, who simply carried out their gameplan more effectively than their opponents. Read more »

The pre-tournament favourites versus the most impressive team in the competition so far. A repeat of the 2008 European Championships final it may be, but this is completely different contest. Read more »

Holland progress – they shaded the contest, and took the initiative to try and win the game by throwing on an extra attacking player at half-time. Read more »

Holland have so far used the same 4-2-3-1 shape in every game, whilst Uruguay have used at least three different formations. Oscar Tabarez is the man with more dilemmas ahead of this contest. Read more »